Lessons learned. Describe the positive aspects of project implementation, the problems encountered and how (if) were they addressed. Describe how other parties could use the solution. Describe best practices that can be adopted or adapted. (15 to 25 lines)
Lessons learned. The need for GAP audits and practical food safety trainings will continue to grow as the industry requirements for increased reporting, traceability, and food safety practices expand. More producers are looking to wholesale markets to expand their operations and add new customers. Additional farms feel driven to participate in GAP audits for liability purposes. Regardless, the need to support GAP auditors and alleviate the initial costs associated with the food safety third-party audits will continue to be a requirement of the produce industry. Additional distributors and retailers are pushing for GAP certification and the industry’s trend may require USDA GAP auditors to become trained in harmonized GAP audits, requiring additional travel and trainings. This will also translate into additional literacy training for growers who will need to meet additional reporting and record keeping requirements. CONTACT Xxxxx Xxxxxxx, Local Foods Administrator, Vermont Agency of Agriculture Xxxxx.xxxxxxx@xxxxx.xx.xx PROJECT 8: Hop Production Systems Research – Previously Accepted PROJECT SUMMARY New England is home to many high-quality microbreweries. With the popularity of the local food movement reaching into the beverage market, many local breweries have expressed interest in encompassing local ingredients in their beers. As hops haven’t been commercially grown in this area for over a hundred years, the purpose of this grant was to provide high-quality local research and technical assistance to farmers looking to diversify with hops. It is projected that in the upcoming year, the number of microbreweries across the nation will increase by 25%. The craft beer industry is highly competitive and brewers are always looking for something that will give them an edge over the competition. Brewing beers with terroir is one of these ways. In these tough economic times, diversifying in agriculture is a good way to ensure economic stability. Hops sold locally have a high economic return, grossing between $10,000 and $20,000 per acre, and provide an excellent new market. However, the vast majority of hops research and outreach has been developed for the arid Pacific Northwest, where 99% of commercial hops are produced. The applicability of this research is limited in the humid Northeastern climate, fostering the need for locally relevant, high-quality research based information and a source through which that information can be distributed as it is developed. PROJECT APPROACH Th...
Lessons learned. CRAFT programs were originally created by a community of growers with like minded commitments to the education of new farmers; experienced farmers both educated and mentored new farmers. The modified CRAFT model we developed and used for this program supports the education of new farmers by providing the organizational structure to allow expert farmers to be teachers. It was successful in part because of our regional collaborative partner whose farmer board provided a direct connection to the community of farmers in that region. These farmers were willing to commit to the project, lend their expertise to educate specialty crop producers, and promote the series. We recommend and plan to continue the approach of working with a regional partner in other areas of the state. Evaluations were lower in quantity than desired. We developed both paper and electronic evaluation formats. Paper evaluations could be either written in the field or taken home to be completed and later mailed to the NOFA-VT office. Electronic evaluations were available in Survey Monkey. The paper evaluations handed out in the workshop contained a link to the electronic evaluation. We received 12 paper evaluations and 12 electronic evaluations from participants. However, our collaborative partner conducted their own evaluation which had 16 responses, so we gleaned additional information from their survey. Next year we will use a simpler evaluation format to increase participation with check box options. We also plan to ask farmers how many new practices they learned so we can start to quantify the learning experience. CONTACT INFORMATION Xxxxx Xxx Xxxxxx, Ph.D., Vegetable and Fruit Technical Assistance Advisor for NOFA-VT Phone: 000-000-0000 x00 and email: xxxxxxxx@xxxxxx.xxx ADDITIONAL INFORMATION The beginner farmer workshops were marketed through a catalogue of summer workshop offerings; the whole catalogue can be viewed at xxxx://xxxxxx.xxx/sites/default/files/SWS2010.pdf. Below is one section describing the beginner farmer workshops. Note that only some of the workshops (those targeted to specialty crop farmers) were part of this project. Beginning Farmers & Apprentices Workshops 1, 2, 5, 7, 8 & 9 are produced in partnership with the Rutland Food and Farm Link (RAFFL) and funded by a USDA Specialty Crop Block Grant; they are offered at no charge. 1Wednesday, July 14 • 6:30 - 8:30pm Marketing Strategies for the Small Farm Xxxxxxxxxx Family Farm • Granville, NY Learn the basics of market...
Lessons learned. Please describe the strengths and weaknesses of your study and provide details of lessons for future projects.
Lessons learned. The Farm-to-Table program begins 2011 in a much stronger position than it began 2010. This is partly due to better financial planning and more diversified funding sources, including an increase in program-generated revenue. It is also due to the organizational partnership (soon to be merger) between Food Works and CVCAC, which will in the long run increase both the financial stability, as well as the outreach and educational opportunities, of all of Food Works’ many intersecting programs. However, the strength of Farm-to-Table is also due to the commitment of the primary growers to working collaboratively on production planning and marketing strategies Reflecting on the experience of this past year, however, brings several critical issues to the fore: First and foremost, the rapid expansion of sales (and the volume of product) strained the capacity of program staff, especially in the fall months. The planned increase in work processing parties, and consequent expanded availability of “lightly processed” products, did not occur, due to limitations in capacity. Likewise, the proposed increase in statewide outreach and modeling of the program did not occur. It is becoming increasingly evident that a new staff position will soon be necessary, although the current budget does not provide for this. In concert with our new partners at CVCAC, we are actively exploring new funding sources. An unexpected outcome also occurred as a result of achieving one of the more specific proposed goals; namely, the increase in the number of community buying clubs. The creation of five new buying clubs in the summer and fall months put an enormous burden on staff and volunteers filling the orders on delivery days. An evaluation of the cost effectiveness of the current buying club pricing structure needs to be made. Between the growth of the buying clubs and the vastly increased sales to the rest of the commercial customer base (workplace and college cafeterias, etc.), it may soon be necessary to revamp the packing, delivery, and billing procedures that have been in place since the inception of the program. In short, an “upgrade” to the entire system will soon be necessary. Farm-to-Table is now at a point where its success may lead it to re-invent its processes. However, its commitment to its dual mission – to benefit the nutritionally at-risk members of the Central Vermont community by providing access to healthy local foods, while at the same time increasing the viability of loc...
Lessons learned. Project communication. Project communication with all parties is critical to the success of a collaborative effort. In the beginning stages of the project, the sheriff’s office did not provide the Round Valley Tribal Council with information about the project. The lack of communication at the onset of the project resulted in additional meetings and project delays. Providing a project briefing or document would have helped to ensure community stakeholders were identified and included from the onset.59 Community meetings. Monthly community meetings were key to this project to build trust between the community and law enforcement. The initial meetings had a strong focus on past concerns, and it was difficult to focus on the future. To maximize time spent during the meetings, the sheriff’s office established ground rules and a published agenda, which helped meetings move forward. The sheriff implemented the following rule for community meetings: if an issue was addressed and resolved in a previous meeting, it will not xx xxscussed again.60 Xxxxxx stated, “you cannot fix the problems of the past; you can only improve how you respond to the issue in xxx xuture.”61
Lessons learned. Issue How did you overcome the issue? Lesson learned Insert additional rows as necessary
Lessons learned. We here summarise the two most important lessons which need to be taken into account when deriving a key agreement protocol, offering resistance in the CK model and being less vulnerable for DoS attacks. • Resistance in CK model: Any possible definition of the SK should consist of a combination of both the local state variable and the private key of at least one entity. For instance, in [10,11], the SK can be written in a form only consisting of local state variables of the two entities and in [12], the SK is derivable to a form only consisting of the private keys of the two entities. • Resistance to DoS attacks: In [10–12], the SP only retrieves the identity of the SMs after receiving a second message and is not able to detect malicious behaviour. Therefore, to avoid the SP keeping open a huge amount of (potential malicious) sessions, it is better to let the request initiated by the SP. The SM is less vulnerable since it can react when too many requests are sent as they are coming from only one entity, i.e., the SP.
Lessons learned. Experience with the implementation of Phare CBC programmes in previous years and evaluation have led to a number of general lessons being learned. These lessons are reflected in the design and implementation of the 2004 CBC Programme Bulgaria-The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The most important lessons relate to constraints on Bulgarian administrative capacity specifically in the Ministry acting as Implementing Agency. Medium to long term efforts to reinforce this capacity are already under way and are supplemented in Phare 2004, but in the meantime additional measures have been put in place to assist. These include efforts to support horizontal public administration reform, limiting the number of grant schemes as these place extra burdens on administrative capacity and avoiding complex multi-phase contracting. Another key lesson is that the success of Phare projects depends on continuity of key senior and working level personnel. In addition to conditionality in project agreements, this issue is being addressed in the context of public sector reform and strengthening, e.g. by developing civil service contracts and conditions to avoid politically motivated staff transfers. More specific lessons relating to individual sectors are reflected in individual project documents
Lessons learned. This section analyses implications for the future wording and implementation of GFAs. First, lessons learned from the case studies are considered with regard to the wording of GFAs. Chapter 3 of this report has presented a content analysis of GFAs, identifying the need to use clear and comprehensive language. The case studies evaluated here support this claim and provide arguments for further strengthening of the wording in GFAs with regard to the application of the agreement to GSCs. In one case study it was reported that an MNE ceased an inquiry into workers’ rights abuses when it realized that the company was not one of its direct suppliers. This example stresses the importance of not lim- iting the application of the GFA to the direct contractors of the MNE, but to include the entire global supply chain. Moreover, the case studies document conflicts over the scope of application to subsidi- aries. The implementation group at Securitas had to deal with two cases concerning the clarification of the agreement’s scope of application to subsidiaries. This emphasizes the importance of including in the GFA a clear definition of the group represented by the MNE. Moreover, conflicts may arise with respect to subsidiaries that leave the group after a GFA has been signed. When the French MNE EDF sold subsidiaries the buyers committed to respect the provisions in the GFA for the next three years, an example indicating that the inclusion in a GFA of provisions in the event of subsidiaries leaving the MNE could be considered. The impact of a GFA on the GSC does not solely depend on formulations in the agreements, however, but crucially on the implementation process. The research project “Organization and Regu- lation of Employment Relations in Transnational Production and Supply Networks – Ensuring Core Labor Standards through International Framework Agreements?” led by Xxxxxxx Xxxxxxx and Xxxx Xxxxx since 2008 includes a number of case studies at local production sites and suppliers that in- clude valuable good-practice examples of a successful implementation of the GFA in the supply chain and at local subsidiaries.17 However, according to the overall analysis, GFAs are still largely unknown among managers in MNE subsidiaries, local suppliers and local trade unions. Moreover, local actors who are aware of them seldom have much understanding of their role. Issues include wide gaps in local actors’ involvement in negotiating GFAs; inadequate communication on the outc...
